Several House races too close to call

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) was locked in a tight reelection battle Wednesday morning, with his race too close to call.

He isn’t the only incumbent lawmaker facing possible defeat.

{mosads}Another race too close to call is Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.), who was trailing Republican challenger Martha McSally by less than 400 votes with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

In California, three incumbent Republicans — Reps. Brian Bilbray, Dan Lungren and Mary Bono Mack — were all at risk of losing their races as of Wednesday morning. 

Democrat Scott Peters had a 685-vote lead over Capitol Hill veteran Bilbray with all precincts reporting. Lungren was down by 184 votes to Democrat Ami Bera, while Bono Mack trailed by 4,386 votes to Democrat Raul Ruiz with 67 percent of precincts tallied. 

In California’s 26th District, the race between Republican Tony Strickland and Democrat Julia Brownley also was too close to call, with Brownley up by more than 7,000 votes with all precincts reporting.

West is down against Democratic rival Patrick Murphy by less than 3,000 votes, with 100 percent of precincts reporting. Florida law requires an automatic recount if the margin stands at 0.5 percent or less of votes cast.

West and Murphy ran in a particularly nasty race, which featured several dirty ads, including West using Murphy’s mug shot from an underage drinking incident in one and a political action committee backing Murphy using a caricature of West punching elderly women and taking money from a family in another.

Barber, the former aide to ex-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), won her seat in a special election earlier this year and was competing for a full term. He was injured in the same shooting that wounded Giffords and had the support of the popular former lawmaker and her husband, Mark Kelly.

With thousands of provisional and late-arriving early ballots still to be counted, it could be days before a winner is declared, officials told the Arizona Daily Star.

And Rep. Dan Benishek (R-Mich.) and Democratic challenger Gary McDowell were locked in a tight contest early Wednesday as well. With 99 percent of precincts reporting. Benishek, a freshman lawmaker, was leading by less than 2,000 votes. This is a rematch from 2010, when Benishek defeated McDowell by 11 points.

In North Carolina, Rep. Mike McIntyre (D) and his Republican challenger David Rouzer were in a race too close to be called. The eight-term lawmaker led by less than 1,000 votes with 100 percent of precincts reporting. Neither candidate has conceded and Rouzer can ask for a recount because of the close margins. It is unknown if he’ll do so. If McIntyre prevails it will be good news for Democrats, who lost retiring Rep. Heath Shuler’s seat and saw Rep. Larry Kissell (D-N.C.) defeated.

The Associated Press has declared Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) the winner of his race after it was up in the air late Tuesday night. Waxman faced a tough challenger in Bill Bloomfield, a self-financed candidate who gave the veteran lawmaker a tough race.

Despite being outspent by nearly $4 million dollars, the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee edged out a 54 to 46 point win with 100 percent of the precincts reporting.

Waxman — who has served for more than 30 years — is a close ally of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and was expected to win reelection. But late Tuesday night, he held only a 100-vote lead, leaving the race too close to call for most of the night.

— This story was posted at 5:07 a.m. and last updated at 11:20 a.m.

Mario Trujillo contributed to this story.